New York – Passengers Say EL AL Lied About Charedi Violence On Flight From NY

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    Jerusalem – Passengers on the nightmare El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv on Thursday night have accused the airline of lying and of a “kidnap” after a five-hour delay in taking off meant that the plane could not reach Israel before Shabbat began.

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    Despite El Al’s initial statement alleging that haredi fliers had been violent, numerous passengers stated subsequently that there had been no violence at all, with many blaming the late arrival of the cabin crew to the airport for the severe delay and failure to reach Israel on time.

    Flight LY002 was scheduled to leave New York’s JFK Airport at 6:30 p.m. local time Thursday and arrive in Israel on Friday afternoon. But due to snow storms and the failure of the El Al cabin staff to arrive on time at the airport, the flight ended up leaving more than five hours later.

    Shortly before the plane took off, religious passengers began to request stridently to disembark since they realized that the flight would continue into the Sabbath on Friday evening, a violation of Jewish religious law.

    El Al claimed that “a group of haredim” requested to get off the plane and “exercised heavy and violent pressure against the cabin crew” in seeking to disembark, and alleged that this caused further delays in taking off.

    But numerous passengers have denied these allegations, including a former member of Knesset and a journalist for Israel Hayom, and accused the captain and the flight crew of essentially kidnapping the passengers who had wanted to get off the plane to avoid violating Shabbat.

    According to these passengers, the flight captain announced that the plane was returning to the gate to allow anyone who wanted to disembark to do so, but then swiftly made its way to the runway and took off unannounced while passengers were still on their phones telling their family members they were staying in New York.

    After being told soon after take off that the flight would make it to Israel on time, the captain announced some hours later that this would not be possible and that the plane was diverting to Athens where religious passengers could disembark and stay overnight for Shabbat, while onward flights to Israel were provided to passengers who wanted to get to Israel on Friday night.

    Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Yehudit Rossler from Monsey, New York, who was a passenger on the plane, insisted that although the atmosphere had been tense she did not see any violence from fellow passengers. She acknowledged, however, that many passengers did shout at the flight attendants. One passenger had shouted at members of the cabin crew that they were “liars and thieves,” she said.

    Others passengers also became emotional, with one “shouting in their faces,” said Rossler, adding that she had told this particular passenger that this was not an appropriate way to talk to the cabin crew.

    Video footage recorded by one passenger, Ben Chafetz, does show passengers raising their voices at the cabin crew and remonstrating vociferously with them, illustrating the heightened tensions onboard.


    In addition, some non-religious passengers posted statements on social media criticising the religious passengers for their behavior, with passenger Roni Meital saying that someone had shoved one of the flight attendants and left her crying. It was unclear from her comment however whether or not she had personally witnessed the flight attendant being pushed.

    Rossler said, however, that tensions were high because they had been lied to and because the pilots were not giving them any information.

    “We were locked in a cage. There was nowhere to go, and no one to talk to. The people we trusted to take us safely to Israel were in their cabin not talking to us and leaving the flight attendants to talk to us,” she said. “They kidnapped us from New York. They told us we were going back to the gate, and took off instead.”

    She added that other passengers had told her that some people banged on the door of the cockpit, demanding that the pilots explain what was happening, although she did not witness this herself.

    Rossler also said that it was not just religious passengers who shouted at the flight attendants, but non-religious passengers as well who were upset that the flight was being diverted to Athens and not traveling straight to Tel Aviv.

    She added that one of the flight attendants had told her that she and other members of the cabin crew had only departed from where they were staying in Manhattan at 3:30 p.m., just more than two hours before the scheduled boarding time, when forecasts of a major snow storm had been made days prior to the flight.

    Chafetz, who wrote an account on the forum of the DansDeals website, insisted that there had been no violence by passengers.

    “We were requesting to speak to the pilot or someone who can speak for the pilot. Again, there was no attempts to break into the cockpit, there were no physical altercations,” he continued, adding that he had been sitting in business class right next to area where passengers confronted the cabin crew, requesting to get off and he was able to hear every exchange.

    Chafetz’s account corroborated that of Rossler’s and others who stated that the captain had said the plane was going to return to the gate, but headed to the runway and took off without telling the passengers.

    Keren Levi, another passenger, wrote a lengthy account on Facebook and relayed the same details, noting that as the plane took off, there had been no warning on the intercom for passengers to fasten their seat belts, put their phones on flight mode, or even to sit down and for the cabin crew to ensure that everyone was seated.

    Levi said that after take-off the religious passengers were assured that they would make it to Israel before Shabbat began, and that the crew stated that they had been given special permission to use a shorter flight path than usual because of the circumstances.

    After several hours, however, a subsequent announcement was made that it would be impossible to reach Israel before the beginning of Shabbat, and that the flight was being diverted to Athens, where religious passengers could disembark and be flown on to Israel after Shabbat on Saturday night.

    Alongside her account, Levi posted a picture of herself cutting up her recently received El Al Silver frequent flyers card.

    Former MK Ya’akov Katz, who was also a passenger on the flight, denounced the airline and the crew for their behavior.

    “The captain lied the entire way and said untrue things,” said Katz in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

    “He said that we were soon leaving, that we would land before Shabbat. He said that he was returning to the gate but instead of returning to the gate, he went and took off.”

    Yehudah Shlezinger, a reporter for Israel Hayom, also rejected claims that there was violence, and said that haredi and religious passengers “spoke pleasantly and behaved calmly.”

    Shlezinger claimed that as he was filming some of the exchanges on his phone, one of the flight attendants grabbed the device from his hand and only returned it to him when he realized that Shlezinger was a journalist.

    “I didn’t see violence from the passengers,” said Shlezinger, adding “They brazenly lied to us for the entire episode.”

    Some 150 passengers got off in Athens so as not to violate Shabbat, but found that there were far too few hotel rooms arranged for them and many had to share.

    Rossler said that those who stayed in Athens had made a positive Shabbat atmosphere despite the circumstances, and had tried to make the best of the situation.

    Once they saw the media reports blaming haredim for the incident however, many became outraged and formed a WhatsApp group with the intention of suing El Al to force the company into acknowledging the behavior of the pilots was wrong and to apologize.

    Despite the disastrous flight, the tribulations of the passengers who stayed in Athens were not over.

    After Shabbat ended on Saturday evening, they had to leave their rooms by 6 p.m. and then left to Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport.

    The planes sent by El Al to ferry them to Israel arrived only late at night, however, and the passengers were forced to wait five hours in the airport until 11:30 p.m. to board. They took off only at midnight, arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport at 1:40 in the morning.

    El Al noted in response to the public furor that the incident generated that many flights were canceled and delayed because of the snow storm, including flights to Israel by other airlines, and said that despite this, El Al had managed to take off.

    “Unfortunately, after taking off we realized that due to weather conditions, the flight would not be able to get to Israel before the beginning of Shabbat and therefore we decided to land in Athens,” said the company in a statement to the press.

    El Al added that it would be filing a complaint to the police for violent behavior on the flight, saying “We view very seriously the severe behavior of some of the passengers on the flight from New York towards the flight staff.”

    Despite this statement, a spokesman for El Al refused to say how many passengers the company was filing complaints against.

    He also refused to say why religious passengers had not been allowed to get off the plane in New York, or if and why the captain had lied to them when he said he was returning to the gate.

    In addition, he declined to say why the flight attendants had been late and why, unlike the flight attendants, all the passengers had been able to arrive on time despite the weather conditions.


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    22 Comments
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    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    5 years ago

    If you are strictly shomer Shabbos , you should not be buying flights to arrive erev shabbos , causing everyone a headache , including yourself .

    thegreatone
    thegreatone
    5 years ago

    Years ago there were loads of frum Yidden who did not fly with El Al. The airline is a part of a symbol of the so called Jewish state. Unfortunately many frum Yidden do fly with El AL. But still many dont fly.

    5 years ago

    They crew shldve let the “observantl Jews disembark. They fooled them. Whatta rare phenomenon from Israelis. They dont give a damn about our holy Sabath nor do they respect religion so it’s no surprise at all.
    But as a btw, erlicha yidden shld be more careful when booking so close to shabos.

    ubgeriser
    ubgeriser
    5 years ago

    Hey Chucky Schummer, why don’t you open your sewer now! You are always busy with narrow seat on planes and whatever you think of to take away attention of how you are ruining this country. Where are you with real issues like this one or other airlines keeping passengers for hours on a taxiway by announcing every 40 minutes some lie as way we are kept in plane. A law should be passes against lying to the passengers and an announcement should be made every 10 minutes of what’s going on. This El Al pilot should be banned from flying into the USA. They always find some story why it’s beyond their control. If it’s weather related tell the people truthfully what to expect.

    Normandavid1
    Normandavid1
    5 years ago

    I’m not surprised by them lying!

    hashomer
    hashomer
    5 years ago

    SOLUTION- let charedi run their own airline!They already have their own army protecting them in Israel. HAMAS.

    5 years ago

    Don’t fly El Al, as there are other airlines to EY, which treat passengers far better; case closed.

    grunbergm
    grunbergm
    5 years ago

    This is but just another test from the Lord above to test his chosens peoples behavior in times of distress, and anxiety, in order to demonstrate the inner feelings of His people, hoping for a different type of reaction and outcome, especially in the most recent shadow of the Pittsburgh massacre! But instead of total unity, and love, there was name calling, by a few, screaming by a few, threats by a few, pushing & shoving by a few, as if they were really being “hijacked”! There is no question here that the airline made some untruths, but thats what it was, and the finale was that the passengers were closer to israel by being in Athens, than being in New York in the stormy weather. We should all celebrate that in todays environment that its an open miracle that the aircraft we fly on, are in fact not hijacked! And in fact in spite of how El Al handled this situation, we habe to be thankful to them for keeping their passengers more secure and safe than any other airline, which could be part of the decision making why the captain suddenly decided to take off as soon as he had clearance, however in no way does this justify any untruths from the cabin or cockpit crew. In this day and age we should just be thankful for getting back to our families safe and sound, and unscathed by those who are out to harm us and destroy our people.

    jayss
    jayss
    5 years ago

    all of you very frum jews you should be embarrassed to let the rest of us know that you aren’t very careful about Shabbos on your account why is elal at fault? you know delays are common you know you were taking abig risk I think you should be thankful you had the nice Shabbos you had and be quet. they cant let you off unless they take your luggage off.they are running a business. by the way you demand a very high level of Shabbos for yourself.do you realize that all jewish staff on a flight that arrives shortly before Shabbos may be traveling on Shabbos because you chose to arrive shortly before Shabbos . just be quiet and say thankyou( and I don’t like making a public statement but we all know how many people run their own business with lots of heterim)

    lazy-boy
    Active Member
    lazy-boy
    5 years ago

    THERE SHOULD BE A GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTIONS OF THE CREW AND ESPECIALLY THE PILOTS!

    ubgeriser
    ubgeriser
    5 years ago

    Smendrik “#7 learn to read. It’s the pilot of that flight lying to passengers should be banned from flying into USA. Dihd yu leren to rid english in mosdsys s….?